He said the need for such collective action and collaboration is more acute now because of the global economic uncertainty and political turmoil in some parts of the world.

Manmohan Singh arrived in this Brunei capital Wednesday to take part in the 11th India-ASEAN Summit and the 8th East Asian Summit on the first leg of his Southeast Asia trip.

He said India was keen to enter into a dialogue and cooperation with like-minded countries on innovative means of financing infrastructure, stressing that building of physical infrastructure needs to go hand-in-hand with creation of soft infrastructure.

India welcomed Brunei's initiative to hold a meeting between the ASEAN Connectivity Coordinating Committee and the East Asia Summit later this year, he added.